Interviews

Meet the Team: Charlie Li

Published on October 15, 2019

For this month’s Meet the Team, we chat with Staff Writer, Charlie Li.

Can you tell us about yourself?

I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia but my family moved to Seattle, Washington a few years ago. I am currently a senior getting his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Game Design at the NYU Game Center. I cosplay (sometimes with friends) as a hobby and love to draw anime-style sketches. In the photo, I am cosplayed as Naga Ray (Hebitsukai Silver) from Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger with my friends as Sougo Tokiwa/Kamen Rider Zi-O from Kamen Rider Zi-O, Emu Hojo/ Kamen Rider Ex-Aid from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, and Brain/Kamen Rider Brain from Kamen Rider Drive/Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Brain.

How did you first get into tokusatsu?

My very first tokusatsu was Power Rangers Wild Force. I remember watching it on ABC Kids as a little 5 year-old boy and owning all the figures, mecha, and role play toys. I, later, got back into tokusatsu with my first Super Sentai, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger in high school and have watched every series as it aired ever since. My first Kamen Rider series was Kamen Rider Wizard as I was curious about this sister franchise and also have been watching since then.

How did you become a member of Team TokuNet and what does your role entail?

After meeting Nicole Amber at my first Katsucon tokusatsu photoshoot as Hiromu Sakurada from Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, she approached me asking if I was interested in working for TokuNet as she had seen how popular my Instagram account was and wanted to hire me as a Toy Contributor. I was later promoted to “Staff Writer” which entails me to translate and write up new Premium Bandai and Bandai Fashion releases as well as information on new DX toys from the current Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series.

What is your favorite tokusatsu show or movie?

My top five series are:

Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Denji Sentai Megaranger

Kamen Rider Kiva or Kamen Rider Fourze

Genseishin Justirisers

Is there a funny or memorable moment from working in TokuNet that you would like to share?

A funny and memorable moment from working in TokuNet are the times we would have watch parties for ToQger (one of the goofiest seasons) and the commentary we would all provide as we watched were just hilarious.

Outside of working for TokuNet, do you have any personal projects or hobbies?

Outside of TokuNet, I am also part of NYU’s anime acapella, NYU Cover Artists. We meet weekly to since covers of anime, vocaloid, and tokusatsu songs as well as decide on a group song to sing at both our winter Club Anime performance and our annual NYU maid cafe event, NYU Coscafe. We also sing in sub-groups to spice up the performances. Some sub-groups I have been in have sang “Climax Jump” from Kamen Rider Den-O and “Spinning Wheel” from Kamen Rider Drive. I am also working on a visual novel game for my Capstone project.